.TH PRBOOM-GAME-SERVER 6 local
.SH NAME
prboom-game-server \- Server for network games of PrBoom.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B prboom-game-server
[\| \-adfnrv \|] [\| \-e \fIepis\fR \|] [\| \-l \fIlevel\fR \|] [\| \-t \fIticdup\fR \|]
.BR
[\| \-x \fIxtics\fR \|] [\| \-p \fIport\fR \|] [\| \-s \fIskill\fR \|] [\| \-N \fIplayers\fR \|]
.BR
[\| \-c \fIconffilename\fR \|]
.BR
[\| \-w \fIwadname\fR[\|,\fIdl_url\fR \|]\|]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.B PrBoom
is a version of the 3D shoot'em'up Doom, originally by id software. 
It includes, amongst other things, the ability to play with several players 
connected by a tcp/ip network. \fBprboom-game-server\fP is the `server', that is the 
program that passes data between the different players in the game.
.PP
To start a network game (often abbreviated to `netgame'), first the server 
is started. \fBprboom-game-server\fP accepts various parameters to control the 
type of game (the skill level, number of players, level to play, optional 
WAD file(s) to load, etc).
.PP
Then each player that wishes to participate runs 
.B prboom \-net 
.IR hostname , 
where \fIhostname\fR is the name of the machine on which the server is 
running. Each copy of prboom retrieves information about the game from 
the server, and when the specified number of players have joined, the game 
begins.

.SH Options
.TP
.BI \-N\  \fIplayers\fR
Specifies the number of players in the game (default \fB2\fP). The server will wait 
for this many players to join before starting the game.
.TP
.BI \-e\  \fIepis\fR
The episode to play (default \fB1\fP).  Unless you are playing Doom 1 or Ultimate 
Doom, and wish to play one of the later episodes, you do not need to change 
this.
.TP
.BI \-l\  \fIlevel\fR
The level to play (default \fB1\fP). 
.TP
.BI \-s\  \fIskill\fR
Specify the skill level to play (\fB1-5\fP).
.TP
.BI \-d
Set game mode to (old) deathmatch (default is cooperative). See the original 
Doom docs for information about the different network game modes.
.TP
.BI \-a
Set game mode to `altdeath' (v2 deathmatch) (default is cooperative). See the 
original Doom docs for information about the different network game modes.
.TP
.BI \-f
Select fast mode (monsters move faster).
.TP
.BI \-n
Selects nomonsters mode, i.e. there are no monsters in the game.
.TP
.BI \-r
Respawn mode. If you don't know what this is, you don't want to ;-).
.TP
.BI \-c\  conffilename
Specifies a configuration file to read which sets parameters for the
game. This is in the same format as the PrBoom configuration file (in
fact, you can ask it to read your normal PrBoom configuration file if
you want). Only certain settings are acknowledged: default_skill,
default_compatibility_level, the compatibility options and some of the
game settings (use \-v to have the server print the options as it
recognises them).
.TP
\fB\-w\fP \fIwadname\fR[,\fIdl_url\fR]
Specifies a WAD file to play. This is added to the internal list that the 
server keeps. When a client connects, the server sends the list of WADs; 
PrBoom will then add this to the list of WADs specified on its command line. 
Optionally, an url to the file can be given too; if when PrBoom connects 
it cannot find the named WAD, it will attempt to retrieve the file 
from the given url, extracting it if necessary. See 
.BR prboom(1)
for information about the supported url types and compression formats.
.TP
.BI \-t\  ticdup
Reserved.
.TP
.BI \-x\  xtics
This causes extra information to be sent with each network packet; this 
will help on networks with high packet loss, but will use more bandwidth.
.TP
.BI \-p\  port
Tells 
.B prboom\-game\-server
what port number to communicate via (default \fB5030\fP). 
Note that if you change this from the default, then all the clients will 
also need to specify this number when they try to connect (the default 
programmed into prboom is also \fB5030\fP).
.TP
.B \-v
Increases verbosity level; causes more diagnostics to be printed, the more 
times \fB\-v\fP is specified.
.SH More Information
.BR prboom (6),
.BR boom.cfg (5)
.PP
For more information, see the \fBREADME\fP that came with PrBoom.
.PP
Doom is a registered trademark of id software (http://www.idsoftware.com/).
.SH Author
See the file \fBAUTHORS\fP included with the PrBoom distribution. 
This man page was written by Colin Phipps (cph@moria.org.uk).



